A few days had gone by when Lucas lost control over his aura. It caused damage to his own mental sphere and his body. A few nights of sleep weren't enough to heal his dome completely. Still, not that was any reason to slow his training down.
"Elam, I know you're protective of your student and I can understand some of it, but it's time to get back into action. Waiting any longer could hinder his progress."
There was an authoritative tone hidden beneath the surface that even Elam couldn't deny. Even Lucas agreed that it was time for him to grow again. The national school competition is only a few months away and as he was right now, victory was nowhere in his grasp.
"I believe it is time for him to start his journey to Rank 2.", just at the mere thought of it, Lucas stood up right and was completely prepared to face the harsh blizzard to reach the top of the mountain. Seeing his enthusiasm, Elam didn't hinder their actions any longer.
Instead, he put in some effort to read the papers he received from the professor. After reading the first line at least three times since he lost his focus, he put them back and made himself comfortable again. A soft and warm blanket with a couch was perfect.
Going up the mountain had become a normal occurrence, nothing special about it. Lucas had grown proficient enough to control the magic in his body to constantly heat it up, protecting it from the bitter cold.
Seeing Lucas didn't have any trouble with the surroundings, the guest teacher found it to be lacking. "Since this trip has become a little too relaxing, I'll be applying some pressure."
He said out of nowhere. The pressure was bad, but not Rank 2 bad, he was still capable of walking, but it asked a lot of him. Muscle enhancement was capable of helping him out, but using his willpower against it was the best solution. Sadly, until he was capable of controlling it, using his personal aura would knock him out.
For now, he had to power through. Reaching the top he was once again transported to the opening in the lush forest. Arriving Lucas was glad that besides a change of scenery the pressure also vanished. The only issue was that the sudden change in temperature and his personal heating technique made him sweat like crazy.
Wiping it away did nothing but displace it. He didn't mind this if it meant learning how to reach the next rank. He had been experimenting, but nothing even remotely close to progress was being made.
Elam's friend walked a while to reach the nearest tree, Lucas had stopped bothering to find out how he got to the clearing. Part of him said it had to be illusion magic, but it all felt too real for it to be that. Perhaps a movement spell, but nothing in his mind felt like the right solution. He figured he would figure it out when he reached a later Rank.
"Lucas, every Rank is a stage of life, the farther you get in the Ranks the more you'll know about yourself and the world around you. Every Rank comes with its own unique hurdle to overcome and there are no set in stone paths you can take. With enough recourses you can boost yourself to the end of Rank 1, but no material will push you into the second Rank.
Only the very first Rank can be achieved by brute forcing energy into your body, as you have done. You might be surprised, but the people who consume cores to gain power are easy to figure out. When you reach a higher Rank and inspect the cores of lower Ranked beings, you'll notice if they're bloated or not.
Yours is only slightly bloated, showing you at least worked hard for a part of it."
Lucas didn't want to be surprised at the guest teacher knowing his name, assuming Elam had giving him the information. Sadly, the other part did shock him, if his core consumption was that easy to find out, how many would have a lower opinion of him when they noticed.
"Sir, there was nothing I could do at that moment. It was either consuming the core or perishing."
"Make all the excuses you want, you're the one that put yourself in jeopardy."
"What do you mean?"
"Consuming cores are a great way of gaining a vast amount of energy, that's for certain. The only downside is that it's too much for the core to handle, and it becomes bloated. It expands a bit and is capable of carrying a bit more energy, but overall it has diminished in quality.
You should understand that eating cores only give a temporary boost and then drags you down. A poisonous medicine that will only alleviate the most pressing symptoms for the first few days before making you severely ill."
"Alright, I get it.", Lucas was visibly upset at the fact that consuming cores wasn't a long term plan. He had already collected two reserves and was simply waiting until he could absorb them. Putting in all that work just for nothing really made him angry.
"Your displeasure is out of my expectation, did you really assume there was a shortcut to power? Anyway, that's an issue for later, first, you need to remove the excess energy that's stuck in your core."
Before Lucas could ask how he would achieve this, the man waved this hand to reveal a Demonic Bear. He once fought one of these, but they didn't look alike at all. Its teeth and nails were overgrown and twisted. They bore into its own flesh and one look at its face showed that the bear was in pain. It was afflicted by the same thing as the wolf was. Unlike the wolf, the bear was somewhat in control.
Some of the horns had pierced a place right under its right eye. A strange white mucus was cluttered at the wound. The smell emanating from it was terrible, Lucas almost felt the need to pinch his nose.
Looking at the bear whine in pain, Lucas started to feel sympathy. When it came to humans he could easily kill them as long as it provided him benefit or furthered his plans. But animals in pain were a sight that twisted his stomach. A suffering animal should be put out of its misery. The guest teacher could tell Lucas cared for the bear, even though it was known to kill anything that entered its layer.
"Are you feeling sympathy for this beast?", he said while circling around the monster, caressing its hide. "To be effective in combat, one must not feel for his enemy, close your heart to it Lucas."
He grabbed one of the horns that was stuck in the beast's face and pulled it out. The beast didn't protest, but its cries were loud and pulled on Lucas's heartstrings. He was cold against human, but still had a soft spot for animals. He believed animals to be pure as they were true to their feelings and acted upon them instead of masking it.
"Lose that pathetic attitude boy.", throwing the horn towards Lucas, he was tasked with killing the beast while using as much of his energy as possible. Normally being greedy with your energy was the right move, but now he needed to get rid of the excess energy stuck in his core. Fighting with his all was the best possible remedy.
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Weeks after the school competition, Lucas had been working hard to improve his own constitution. He trained daily and used the herbs provided by the competition to create herbal concoctions that improved the production of muscles and reinforced them slightly. If he were to use his muscle strengthening spell it would boost it even further. Besides that the herbs were supposed to widen the pathways in the body a bit. For Lucas the last part was useless.
Muscle strengthening might've seemed like a waste of time, but Lucas, like always, had a plan. Magical intensification put a big strain on the body and certain points within the pathways, which for Lucas were gone. Thus, he needed to put this workload somewhere in his body and using his organs didn't seem like the smartest idea.
Thus, he began to put the strain intensification brought onto his muscles to see how much it could handle. At first, the muscles couldn't handle even the slightest bit and got burned in a few places. Internal bleeding wasn't easy to heal, but with the healing ability of the guest teacher was he able to continue his muscle improvement. Only by strengthening them further and further did he have a chance of using the intensification endlessly, which was his end goal.
Throughout the weeks of training he fought a plethora of different beasts.
Worms the size of twice his body with a mouth filled with sharp teeth, strange plant-like being that used the grass as weapons and monstrous looking birds were all part of his daily training schedule. The guest teacher was rarely friendly or forgiving, always pushing him to his absolute limits before ending the fights.
Which was very useful since he didn't always win every fight, in fact, he lost most of the time. It was only after fighting a certain beast multiple times that he gained a good grasp on their movements and attack patterns.
Besides the new beasts he needed to learn, there was also the issue with his artifact. Using the blacksmith's sword turned out to be very adaptable but hard to use. By fueling the sword with elemental magic it could coat itself in that very element. Meaning if he poured fire magicules into the sword it would gain a coating of fire that busted out of the sword.
The issue was that it required a constant stream of energy, and it took some time before Lucas could do so without thinking about it. It wouldn't be the first time he burned himself with the sudden explosion that came out of his sword due to him forgetting it and pushing a bunch in.
Lucas was forced to increase his arsenal of spells and needed to improvise during each and every battle. The moment the guest teacher found it to be too easy he brought another monster or used spells himself to distract Lucas. Each time he got a scar it was a sign of his incompetence and motivation to continue growing stronger.
If he couldn't handle a few beasts in a controlled environment, what would happen when the next Scarlet Moon came about?
During his weeks in training he got an unexpected guest at the cabin door. Since Elam was too tired to open it himself, Lucas was the one.
Opening it brought a gust of cold wind inside, the moment it got inside though it heated up right to room temparature before reaching Elam. Looking outside he saw a distinguished man with short dark blue hair that perfectly blended with the blizzard behind him.